Tag: Islam

Our Old Grand Fantasies About Radical Islam

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by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

Most things that we read in the popular media about radical Islam are fantasies. They are promulgated in the mistaken belief that such dogmas will appease terrorists, or at least direct their ire elsewhere. But given the recent news — murdering in Algeria, war in Mali, the Syrian mess, and Libyan chaos — let us reexamine some of these more common heresies. Such a review is especially timely, given that Mr. Brennan believed[1] that jihad is largely a personal quest for spiritual perfection; Mr. Kerry believed[2] that Bashar Assad was a potentially moderating reformer; and Mr. Hagel believed[3] that Iran was not worthy of sanctions, Hezbollah was not deserving of ostracism, and Israel is equally culpable for the Middle East mess.
Continue reading “Our Old Grand Fantasies About Radical Islam” →

Hagel, Brennan, and the Obama View of the Middle East

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by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

The Meaning of Hagel and Brennan

Chuck Hagel and John Brennan, given their long public service, will probably be confirmed. Their appointments will have a force-multiplying effect on our new foreign policy as it pertains to the Middle East. If one were to collate their speeches and more unfortunate statements, a surprisingly similar view of the world after 9/11 emerges. Continue reading “Hagel, Brennan, and the Obama View of the Middle East” →

Democracy Promotion or Islamist Promotion?

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by Bruce Thronton

Frontpage Magazine

The hope that democracy would bloom in Egypt following our collusion in removing Hosni Mubarak looks more and more delusional every day. Even our foreign policy wishful thinkers are no longer peddling the canard that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is “secular” and “moderate,” thus proving that Muslims devoted to the global expansion of Islam and illiberal Sharia law can be liberal democrats friendly to our interests. But despite being mugged by the Islamist reality, too many democracy promoters in the West still refuse to acknowledge that the Iranian Revolution, not the American Revolution, is the likely model for the so-called “Arab Spring.” Continue reading “Democracy Promotion or Islamist Promotion?” →

The Ghosts of 1938 Still Haunt Our Foreign Policy

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by Bruce Thronton

Frontpage Magazine

In a story describing President Obama’s six conversations with Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi that led to the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the New York Times summarized Obama’s estimation of Morsi. Obama told his aides “he was impressed with the Egyptian leader’s pragmatic confidence. Continue reading “The Ghosts of 1938 Still Haunt Our Foreign Policy” →

The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism

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by Bruce Thornton

FrontPage Magazine

The murder of four Americans in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11, and the subsequent attempts by the Obama administration to blame the attacks on a YouTube video critical of Islam, exposed the delusional assumptions of Obama’s foreign policy. This notion that Western bad behavior — whether colonialism, support for Israel, or insults to Islam and Muhammad — is responsible for jihadist violence, however, has vitiated our approach to Islamist terrorism for over a decade now. Continue reading “The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism” →

The Neurotic Middle East

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by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Let us confess it: Many of the things that are bothersome in the world today originate in the Middle East. Billions of air passengers each year take off their belts and shoes at the airport, not because of fears of terrorism from the slums of Johannesburg or because the grandsons of displaced East Prussians are blowing up Polish diplomats. Continue reading “The Neurotic Middle East” →

‘Religious Defamation’ Laws Would Ban Islam

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by Raymond Ibrahim

Frontpage Magazine

As the Islamic world, in the guise of the 57-member state Organization of Islamic Cooperation, continues to push for the enforcement of “religious defamation” laws in the international arena — theoretically developed to protect all religions from insult, but in reality made for Islam — one great irony is lost, especially on Muslims: if such laws would ban movies and cartoons that defame Islam, they would also, by logical extension, have to ban the religion of Islam itself — the only religion whose core texts actively defame other religions. Continue reading “‘Religious Defamation’ Laws Would Ban Islam” →

The Rape of Christopher Stevens

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by Raymond Ibrahim

Frontpage Magazine

By obsessing over the 14-minute YouTube Muhammad video and its maker, the mainstream media ultimately exonerates the inexcusable and murderous response of the Islamic world. Continue reading “The Rape of Christopher Stevens” →

Islam’s Black Flag Flies over Egypt

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by Raymond Ibrahim

FrontPage Magazine

The United States embassy of Egypt is under siege. According to Fox News, Continue reading “Islam’s Black Flag Flies over Egypt” →

The Ripples of 9/11

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by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

After the radical Islamist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the foiled effort to ram a fourth jet into the Capitol in Washington, no one envisioned that there would follow eleven years without another major attack. Since September 11, 2001, over 45 terrorist plots have been uncovered and foiled in the United States; al Qaeda, as a terrorist threat, seems regionalized and without the ability to inflict mayhem on a similarly large scale on the Western world; bin Laden is no more; and the Arab Islamic world itself is divided and torn by the conflicting currents of theocracy, democracy, and dictatorship. Continue reading “The Ripples of 9/11” →